U.S. woman offers to buy P.E.I. seal hunt licences

[Animal 0]

September 11, 2006 CBC News

An American businesswoman hoping to stop the seal hunt is unlikely to find
Islanders willing to sell their licences, says the executive director of the
P.E.I. Fishermen's Association.

Cathy Kangas, president and founder of PRAI Beauty, offered the Canadian
government $16 million to end the hunt earlier this year. Kangas got no response
from Ottawa, so now she's offering to buy out seal licences.

Kangas says hundreds of seal hunters have called and e-mailed her, interested in
her offer, and says she met in Halifax last week with two Island seal hunters
who are interested in helping her shut down the industry.

"I'm still trying to work with some of the sealers on Prince Edward Island,"
said Kangas.

"Some of the sealers themselves came and said, 'We'd love to have seal tourism.'
Instead of the hunt that just comes and goes for a few weeks, why not be able to
have, you know, the tourism from it. A little bit like whale watching. Perhaps
we could have a role like a park ranger."

Kangas planning visit to P.E.I.

Kangas says she plans to visit Prince Edward Island later this month or early
next month to speak with more seal hunters, but Ed Frenette, executive director
of the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association suggests that would be a waste of time.

"After smiling, I guess the reaction was that it won't fly," said Frenette.

"We brought it to our board of directors of the fishermen's association, who
turned the concept down flatly. People have to understand that there's been a
real explosion in the numbers of seals in the southern Gulf. They're eating fish
stocks at an enormous rate, and they're damaging gear all over the place."

There are 22 active seal licences on Prince Edward Island.